Gaya: The Bodh Gaya Temple Advisory Committee with Bhutan ambassador V Namgyal as its chairman, Than Htwe (Myanmar counsel-general), Kapila Foneska (minister in Sri Lankan High Commission, New Delhi) and Magadh division commissioner Lian Kunga as member-secretary, on Saturday reviewed the execution of the projects aimed at providing better amenities to pilgrims and tourists and develop the seat of Lord Buddha's enlightenment in accordance with Unesco guidelines to prevent the conversion of the town into a concrete jungle and conserve the shrine and its ambience to retain its basic character.

The Unesco, while notifying the Mahabodhi temple as a world heritage site, had recommended a buffer zone with no construction within 500 metres on all sides of the shrine boundary. It had also recommended limiting the height of buildings to 10 feet within an area of one km from the shrine and 30ft within an area of two km from the shrine.

The recommendations, despite repeated reminders from the world body and even veiled threats about de-notification (Unesco does not have legal powers to enforce its guidelines and it can at best denotify a place where heritage conservation was found to be improper), have not be followed properly.

Preeti Singh, chairman of the Bodh Gaya Nagar Panchayat and a member of the advisory committee, through a two-page petition addressed to the chairman, complained that major decisions taken by the committee several years back have not been implemented.

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